1973 Suzuki T500 Restoration

Photos and progress of your restorations, even bikes you had but no longer own.

Moderators: oldjapanesebikes, H2RICK, Suzsmokeyallan

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greasepencil
On the street
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:53 am

1973 Suzuki T500 Restoration

Post by greasepencil »

Hello all,

I figure I'd start a restoration thread on here, as winter is coming up and I'll need something to keep me sane. I haven't done much except some tidying up, cleaning and riding. I installed some really nice used headlamp ears today along with some new case screws from rimfirecycle.

Needs a good going through...not a bad start at all really.
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low mileage example...will be keeping the gauges as it's somewhat a badge of honor to run that long.
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new to the bike headlight ears
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and this grille emblem came off my old mustang...seemed fitting, a cobra on a sort of cobra, it's to help me more easily distinguish my bike from the others at barber's this weekend
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Thanks,
Dan
MikeH1A
Yeah Man, the Interstate
Posts: 529
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:27 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: 1973 Suzuki T500 Restoration

Post by MikeH1A »

Hi Dan, Welcome along. The T500 is a nice bike to restore and ride. Looks like you have an excellent starting point there - certainly much better than the state of mine when I started working on her :up: . Good luck with the resto and keep the pics coming.

Mike
Burt Munro + John Britten + Kim Newcombe + Ivan Mauger = Kiwi Street Cred

72 GT750J
71 TS250R
71 H1A
greasepencil
On the street
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:53 am

Re: 1973 Suzuki T500 Restoration

Post by greasepencil »

Thanks Mike, I am going to disassemble to the frame, powdercoat (if I can find someone who can make a repro head stock decal), all the original black stuff, new seat cover, new spokes with a hub polish, new tires and tubes, new emblems and get my buddy to respray the bodywork the cornado blue and ride it another 40k miles. I had a black 68' cobra, but Eric Kalamaya ended up with it...not going to let this one get away, it's tons of fun to ride, geared tall...has a 4.50 rear on it currently...needs to be jetted up, it's far too lean. But it will be fun to build, and even more fun to ride when done!
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wvc
To the on ramp
Posts: 236
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:15 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: 1973 Suzuki T500 Restoration

Post by wvc »

Reproduction headstock decals, (aka vin tags), for the T500 are available from a couple sources. One being Tyler Tech in Australia. http://www.tylertech.com.au/id39.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
76 GT500 - restoration project in work
4 other 76 GT500's
1.5 GT550's
4 GT380's
5 T500's (72-75 models)
4 GT750's

Suzuki GT hoarder...and a bad case of OBD.....(old bike disease)
greasepencil
On the street
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:53 am

Re: 1973 Suzuki T500 Restoration

Post by greasepencil »

wvc wrote:Reproduction headstock decals, (aka vin tags), for the T500 are available from a couple sources. One being Tyler Tech in Australia. http://www.tylertech.com.au/id39.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
]

Thank You! :up: :D That's exactly what I've been looking for, mine is the USA style T500 headstock decal, so it's the big and long style.

Thanks,
Dan
greasepencil
On the street
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:53 am

Re: 1973 Suzuki T500 Restoration

Post by greasepencil »

Thought I'd post up an update on what's going on with the resto, I ordered a repro head stock decal from tylertech in Australia, and picked up some turn signals from the local scrapyard, but only one correct rear, the other has a wire through the stalk, not allowing me to use it, others are part number 35600 while the odd one is 35700, maybe it's earlier? I picked up a headlight shell, although numbers incorrect, it fits the light and is in much better shape than the s273 bucket.

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Thanks,
Dan
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